Human Research Protection Program

HIPAA

Guidelines and Forms for Research

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) included provisions to protect the privacy of individually identifiable health information and established the conditions under which covered entities might release such information for research purposes. The new regulations went into effect as of Monday, April 14, 2003. For researchers who currently obtain protected health information (PHI) from a covered entity, and for those investigators who in the future may wish to obtain PHI as part of their research or to pre-screen potential research subjects, the requirements imposed by HIPAA will change how you conduct your research. The guidelines provided in the following document are designed to assist researchers affected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) which is commonly referred to as the Privacy Act.